The center of gravity has moved from stopping fire to designing an end state. What was framed as a ceasefire-first path now runs the other way: a “comprehensive” settlement first, a ceasefire after. That procedural inversion matters because it resets who holds leverage when it can be used, and what must be priced in before guns go quiet.

Leverage is often described as a matter of strength, but it is just as much a matter of position. A tool’s force depends on what it rests against — a structure that holds while pressure is applied. In political economy, those fixed points are consistency, time, and alignment.

Economic statistics rely on a fragile balance: produced within government yet shielded from daily political influence, a separation essential to their credibility and not merely symbolic.

Deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., is framed as crime control, with officials stressing logistics and presence while downplaying their authority to detain individuals.